Archive for May, 2012

“Don’t you know the mayonnaise trick? My friend Dori and I were standing in front of Empire Mayonnaise in Brooklyn..when she asked me that. If there was a trick for making mayonnaise, I certainly did not know it. And what a trick–a potential game-changer, the kind that turns homemade mayo from a special-occasion recipe into an everyday endeavor, ending our dependence on subpar, corn syrup filled commercial stuff.

Adding a teaspoon of water to the yolks before dripping in the oil helps create a stronger and more stable emulsion.”

“Some of the world’s biggest investors are betting they can beat real-estate fund managers at their own game. Put off by high fees and disappointing performance of so-called pooled funds, major institutions such as Harvard University’s endowment, Canada Pension Plan and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are building in-house real-estate investment divisions to acquire property directly. They are making fewer real-estate investments through outside fund managers who pool contributions from dozens of investors.”

Hi. Lost most of the sports metaphors I collected over the weekend when I got home to Pennsylvania. However, here is a common one in an ad I found in the May 19-25, 2012 “Economist.” I think you will find it clever:

92: What would you do with an extra 92 hours?

“High-performance analytics from SAS helped a financial services firm reduce loan default calculation time from 96 hours to just 4… Now SAS can help you speed that time to decisions from days to literally minutes and seconds—transforming your big data into relevant business value.”

“Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. emerged as a major backer of Coty Inc.’s bid for struggling beauty company Avon Products Inc., but Berkshire’s support had the unexpected effect of signaling the deal may never come together.”…

“The financing role is one Mr. Buffett has played before. In 2008, the billionaire investor helped fund closely held candy maker Mars Inc.’s $23 billion purchase of Wm Wrigley Jr. & Co.,” as well as a “2009 $3 billion in financing for Dow Chemical Co.’s $15.3 billion purchase of Rohm & Haas.”

“It is rare but not unprecedented for a new chief executive to accept a takeover bid.”

Will Mr. Buffett have a home run with this “at bat.” It is rare, certainly, to have three home runs for three at bats. Josh Hamilton of the Rangers had one more when he hit four home runs for four at bats at Baltimore against the Orioles on Tuesday, last week.

Mr. Hanson directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In this article for the Times on the OP-Ed page, Mr. Goddard states: “If Canada exploits its tar sands, civilization will be at risk.” This in response to President Obama’s interview with “Rolling Stone” in which the president said that Canada will do this “regardless of what we do.”

Mr. Hanson, had predicted in 1981 in the journal, “Science,” that global warming would become “louder than the noise of random weather.” He outlines current warning signs as well as near-term and long-term signs in this article, as well as the underlying science.

“If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.”

Among Mr. Hanson’s ideas for reducing emissions he believes that: “We should impose a gradually rising carbon fee, collected from fossil fuel companies, then distribute 100 percent of the collections to all Americans on a per-capita basis every month,” without the government getting a penny. “that the reduction in oil use resulting from the carbon price would be nearly six times as great as the oil supply from the proposed pipeline from Canada…”

“But instead of placing a rising fee on carbon emissions to make fossil fuels pay their true costs, leveling the energy playing field, the world’s governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels with hundreds of billions of dollars per year.”

Mr. Hanson concludes by urging the political leadership to speak candidly to the American public who, in the past, have shown they can rise to “a challenge.” “The science of the situation is clear–it’s time for the politics to follow…”

“The cost of acting goes far higher the longer we wait–we can’t wait any longer to avoid the worst and be judged immoral by coming generations.”

Washington–“Andy Pettitte on Wednesday backed away from his testimony against former baseball teammate Roger Clemens, leaving a judge to consider whether a central plank of the case against Mr. Clemens should be removed from the jury’s cosideration.”

Roger Clemens, Major League pitcher for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, among others, is on trial “for allegedly lying to Congress about using performance enhancing drugs.” On Tuesday Mr. Pettitte “testified that Roger Clemens said he used growth hormone.” On Wednesday, Mr. Pettitte threw a curve by saying he “wasn’t sure.”

I italicize sports metaphors to emphasize them, as this is a sports idioms site, and, also, to show their metaphorical use. This is a great use of a baseball term in an article about a famous baseball pitcher, Roger Clemens, and in baseball season. A curve ball is deceptive; it curves and drops at the last minute throwing the batter off.

The president of the Zulus, Mr. Zuma, just married his sixth wife. In traditional Zulu culture the man “reigns supreme and polygamy prevails.”

However, 87% of South Africans favoured lifelong marriage (monogamy). The metaphor for the 87% is that they, if they have only one wife as well as preferring it, are swimming with the tide. Mr. Zuma, although president, is swimming against the tide, because this particular “tide” is going the way the majority want it.